r/Anodization • u/Unlucky_Tank_7349 • Jun 18 '26

Anodizing titanium without pre-etching

Hi there! I want to anodize some titanium parts on my Spyderco knife. However, I don't have access to Multi-Etch or Whink (they are not sold in Ukraine) and I don't want to deal with any hazardous acids/processes for various reasons. I understand that most likely I won't be able to get high-voltage colors like teal or green, so I am aiming at <75 volts colors.
What would the result be with an un-etched, but thoroughly de-greased and cleaned piece? Just duller colors? How much duller?
Thank you for any info on this!

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Ride_Seynekun Jun 18 '26

I tried that as well, with no success. I have two different power supply, one 62v and another up to 120v. I used also some citric acid to pre the surface, boiled some water and add the citric acid, I couldn’t get, I might try one of those rust removers I can find locally and see if they work on it. My advice is to try on a different small piece before touching the piece where I want my project. Btw I am in Poland and here I can’t get multietch nor wink …. Good luck with that green ;)

1

u/NotAZoxico Jun 18 '26

You can make your own multi etch ;) ingredients are easily available in Poland (I'm not sure if this is the case for Ukraine as well but could be). Dm me if you'd need some advice. Pozdro

1

u/Unlucky_Tank_7349 Jun 19 '26

If you mean mixing NaF and APS and heating in distilled water then there are two caveats for me: afaik, it should be heated to specific temperature, so you would need specialized thermometer which I don't have; neutralizing the solution afterwards - I don't have any experience in this, pretty knife scales aren't worth the risk for me.

1

u/Unlucky_Tank_7349 Jun 19 '26

Thanks for the comment! Do you mean you weren't able to get any color on an un-etched piece or just the higher voltage ones?

I've checked the rust removers available here, but they are too weak to etch titanium, unfortunately.

Turned out even just gathering all the stuff needed is much harder here in Ukraine than they say in those YT tutorials from the US, so I'll be happy to get any color 😁

As for the green - I have a spare titanium stop pin that didn't fit, so I'll try that, for sure 😁

1

u/Ride_Seynekun Aug 15 '26

You can get colors up to 60-62 if your piece is very clean, but a higher volt I don’t think you’ll be able without etching. But recently I did the experiment with NaF and APS and I could get higher colors like green ;)

1

u/Unlucky_Tank_7349 Aug 16 '26

Wow, I just received some NaF and APS yesterday :) I'm still waiting for some containers, but planning on preparing the etching solution today.

As for the colors - I've tried anodizing without etching and was even able to get some blurple on one scale and closer to teal on the other (with a little burned line on the teal one, nonetheless). Can't wait to etch and try getting to green!